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en-usCopyright 2015 AOL Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.joystiq.com/2015/01/06/sony-ps4-sales-surpass-18-5-million-following-holiday-boom/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Joystiq&ncid=rss_semi
http://www.joystiq.com/2015/01/06/sony-ps4-sales-surpass-18-5-million-following-holiday-boom/http://www.joystiq.com/2015/01/06/sony-ps4-sales-surpass-18-5-million-following-holiday-boom/?utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Joystiq#commentsPlayStation 4 sales are now beyond the 18.5 million mark, according to Sony's announcement at CES 2015. The PS4's pubertal growth into the late teens (millions-wise) occurred in a prolific holiday season, with more than 4.1 million units shifted worldwide since November 23, 2014.

Sony's numbers represent the company's estimates of units sold to consumers, as opposed to retail shipments. According to Sony, the PS4 "continues to demonstrate the fastest and strongest growth in PlayStation hardware history." To contrast and compare, the PS3 shipped 10.5 million units within a similar timeframe, and the PS2 10.6 million units.

"We are absolutely delighted that so many customers around the globe have continued to select PS4 as their console of choice throughout this holiday season," said Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House. "We will continue to reinforce and deliver additional value on PS4 as the best place to play, by bringing even more exciting content and by enriching our wide array of service offerings."
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AT&T's international cellphone plans have become more affordable over time, but they've still been wildly expensive in some cases -- besides the low data caps, even frequent texting can cost a lot of money. Things just got a little more reasonable with the carrier's new Passport plans, however. The smartphone add-ons still ask you to pay between $30 to $120 per month for a paltry 120MB to 800MB of data, but they now include unlimited SMS messaging and WiFi service (on Android and iOS) in the bargain. In short, you won't run into any nasty overage fees simply because you got into a deep text conversation or uploaded too many vacation photos through one of AT&T's hotspot partners. These new one-time tiers are available now, and regular Global plans have received a matching upgrade if you routinely venture abroad.

Could this be the global data plan of our dreams? A fan site for Shakira, the artist set to perform at T-Mobile'sUnCarrier event tonight, published a teaser on its Facebook page today. The image above suggests that the carrier will announce data plans that include global roaming in more than 100 countries, with no additional fees. That's all we have to report for now -- it's unclear whether or not data will be capped, which countries are included and what you'll need to pay for the plans -- but this Facebook post is consistent with a tweet from T-Mobile CEO John Legere this morning, declaring "Today is the day! The day we change the way the world uses their phones! You ready? #unleash."

Update: It appears those rumors were spot on as T-Mobile's site is now showing a promo for free global coverage in over 100 countries, with plans to launch the service later this month. No other details are available just yet, but it does appear this will only apply to postpaid subs on the Simple Choice Plan.

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dataglobalmobilepostcrossroamingshakirat-mobiletraveluncarrierWed, 09 Oct 2013 15:34:00 -040021|20741569http://www.joystiq.com/2013/10/04/destiny-of-spirits-global-beta-starts-october-24/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Joystiq&ncid=rss_semi
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/10/04/destiny-of-spirits-global-beta-starts-october-24/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/10/04/destiny-of-spirits-global-beta-starts-october-24/?utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Joystiq#comments
Q Entertainment's monster-collecting Vita game Destiny of Spirits will enter a beta test phase on October 24. The free-to-play RPG has players engaging in turn-based combat with their upgradable minions, which players can trade or lend to others.

The game encourages players to bring their Vitas with them while traveling, as the system's location-tracking tech is used to unlock spirits with every trip. The global beta program, which allows players to collect every spirit and access every location in the Destiny of Spirits, will end November 1.

LG's F-series handsets may not be in the same class an HTC One or GS4, but we can't help but appreciate the solid specs and LTE-goodness baked into these mid-range devices. Following a debut alongside its F7 sibling at MWC, the F5 will begin trickling out to French retailers on April 29th. While there's no mention of US availability -- despite a recent leak pegging it for Verizon -- we do know LG will soon be pushing it out to parts of Asia and Central / South America. Aimed at markets new to LTE, the smartphone packs a beefy 2,150mAh battery, 5-megapixel camera, 1.2GHz dual-core processor and a 4.3-inch screen for showing off LG's skinned version of Android 4.1.2. If you're curious to give LTE a go and this looks like a winner, you'll find the full press release after the break.

If you've been salivating at the thought that Sony's latest flagship would eventually arrive on your turf, then Kaz Hirai just threw a teasing softball into your field of view. At Sony's Mobile World Congress press conference, the company chief said that the Xperia Z would soon be arriving in 60 countries across five continents this week. Of course, without any PowerPoint slides showing which locations it'll land in, it's a little tough to confirm or deny where in the world it'll arrive, but at least you can start badgering your local store, right?

Global flavors of LTE bands can be a hassle for travelers and firms making multiple versions of the same device, but Qualcomm says its solved that quandary with a new radio chipset. Dubbed the RF360, the silicon is hailed as the world's first mobile chip that packs support for global LTE, which translates to connectivity for LTE-FDD, LTE-TDD, WCDMA, EV-DO, CDMA 1x, TD-SCDMA and GSM / EDGE -- breaking down the barriers separating roughly 40 different LTE bands. Not only does it lend globetrotters a hand, but Qualcomm claims the component carries a few other "world's first" features that allow manufacturers to build thinner products with improved antenna performance, battery life and connection reliability. The outfit also unveiled the WTR1625L chip, which stakes claim to an industry first by sporting carrier aggregation alongside international LTE compatibility. Hardware made with the RF360 isn't expected to arrive on shelves until the latter half of 2013, but for now you can mosey past the break for the nitty gritty details and a video to walk you through them.

Sina Technology sat down with Tim Cook while he was in China and talked about Apple's growing presence in the Asian country.

Not surprisingly, Cook fielded a question about China Mobile, the world's largest wireless carrier and the only major Chinese carrier to not sell the iPhone. Cook confirmed he met with China Mobile in the last few days, but was not at liberty to discuss what was said between the two companies.

With more than 700 million subscribers and a network that covers more than 97 percent of the Chinese population, China Mobile is the holy grail for handset manufacturers. Unfortunately, the 3G technology it uses is not compatible with older models of the iPhone. If China Mobile does get the iPhone 5, it will likely run on China Mobile's growing 4G LTE network.

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chinaChina mobileChinaMobileglobaliphoneiphone 5Iphone5Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:00:00 -050016|20425053http://www.joystiq.com/2012/12/28/kate-edwards-named-igdas-new-executive-director/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Joystiq&ncid=rss_semi
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/12/28/kate-edwards-named-igdas-new-executive-director/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/12/28/kate-edwards-named-igdas-new-executive-director/?utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Joystiq#commentsGordon Bellamy stepped down as the director of the Interational Game Developers' Association last July, and the organization has finally named his successor. Kate Edwards will serve as the group's new executive director, after being an IGDA member for 16 years, and founding and chairing the IGDA's Localization Special Interest Group.

Global cultural strategy is Edwards' specialty: She worked for Microsoft as a geopolitical strategist in the '90s, and more recently worked at her own company, Englobe, since 2005. In addition to her other experience with the IGDA, Edwards also helped co-organize the Game Developers' Conference Localization Summit. The IGDA's chairman, Dustin Clingman, says he hopes Edwards will use her talents to help the group "lay a foundation for ongoing international growth."

Last year, the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) told us there were five billion mobile subscriptions worldwide at the close of 2010, and now it's reporting that at the end of 2011, that figure hit a staggering six billion. China and India account for one billion a piece, and it brings us ever closer to having the equivalent of one subscription for every person on the planet. (According to the CTIA, there are already more cellular plans in the US -- around 322 million -- than there are inhabitants.) In a stat-heavy release from the ITU, it also ranked the most advanced telecoms countries, with South Korea placing first, Japan eighth and countries in Europe filling the remaining spots.

Interestingly, the number of global mobile broadband subscriptions now outnumbers fixed ones by two to one, and mobile internet services showed the biggest growth rates in 2011: 40% worldwide and 78% in developing markets. The ITU attributes the latter figure to the relatively high price of fixed access in these countries, and the increasing availability of mobile alternatives. The CTIA also commented on mobile broadband use, reporting that from July 2011 to June this year, Americans consumed 104 percent more data -- no doubt due, in part, to people taking advantage of expanding 4G coverage. As usual, we've given you the cheat sheet, so if you'd like the full reports and have got a thing for statistics, there's plenty more in the source links below.

Traveling is great -- nay, amazing. And travel that requires a passport can be even more fulfilling for those willing to open their minds to new cultures (and, perhaps, deal with entirely too much security screening). But here's the thing -- travel is a lot better, generally speaking, with an internet connection within arm's reach. Things are never more likely to go awry than when you leave your comfort zone (or, you know, home nation), and we here at Engadget have been investigating the best methods for maintaining a connection whilst abroad for the better part of our lives. To date, you've got a smattering of options: rent a MiFi from XCom Global, pick up a rental SIM from iPhoneTrip, pray that you can find a shop that rents data SIMs upon your arrival or pony up for whatever absurd roaming fees that your home operator deems fit.

All of the above options have their pros and cons, but the good news here is that your choices are expanding. As the market for ubiquitous connections continues to grow, another player has recently entered the market. Tep Wireless began as a hotspot rental service that mainly looked after those traversing the United Kingdom, but recently, it expanded its coverage umbrella to include some 38 countries across Europe and 50 nations total. This here editor recently had the opportunity to cross through four of those on a single journey, with a Tep hotspot in hand the entire way. Care to see how things turned out? Let's reconvene after the break.

The international mobile hotspot rental market just got a lot more interesting. While Xcom Global's offerings are still broader, Tep Wireless is expanding in a major way. Previously reserved for European nations, the upstart is now serving a full 50 nations, adding Brazil, the United States, South Africa, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Australia, Bahrain, Israel, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and UAE to its repertoire. For those in need of a refresher, the company enables customers facing an international trip to order their hotspot and get it delivered prior to departure, with a prepaid envelope included to ship it back once they've returned.

The company's made clear that its hotspots will track data usage in real time right on the inbuilt display, and they're programmed to hop onto different networks as borders are crossed. (If you're curious, we confirmed that it all works as advertised in a recent jaunt across European borders.) The full pricing chart fo is hosted up after the break, with those needing unlimited buckets able to pay a $6.95-per day surcharge. (It should be noted that the preexisting EU-wide pricing options remain for those sticking to that region.) It'll probably look a touch pricey to light users and common tourists, but business travelers unwilling to take chances on connectivity when heading overseas will find the rates far more palatable than roaming fees from their home carrier.

Great news for those waiting anxiously at the door for their UPS / FedEx delivery... well, for those awaiting a Verizon iPhone 5, anyway. We've already broken down the differences between the trifecta of iPhone 5 models, and it seems that the one VZW is hawking is a real gem for travelers. Aside from handling Verizon's LTE waves just fine, the nano-SIM slot will also accept cards from any other GSM carrier worldwide. In other words, AT&T nano-SIMs will get you onto its HSPA+ network, and T-Mobile nano-SIMs will play nice as well. If you're heading overseas, you can pick up a local nano-SIM on arrival and plug it straight in -- no unlocking code necessary. To confirm, this even applies to Verizon iPhone 5 units that were purchased under contract. You can hit the video after the break for proof, but heed one word of advice: wait until you find a legitimate nano-SIM to throw in there. It looks as if the cut-and-stuff approach leaves a bit to be desired.

It was going to happen eventually, but we're big fans of the "better soon than later" mentality. The global edition of Nokia's Windows Phone 8 flagship, the Lumia 920, has been given the thumbs-up from the FCC. The device, which supports five LTE bands used outside of the US and zero within, has already been WiFi-certified (the certification papers actually specify this model, the RM-821, as the Lumia 920.1, which leads us to assume the AT&T-friendly version might be the 920.2). We're quite certain this won't be widely available stateside -- and certainly not through a major national carrier -- so we'll remain on the hunt for another Lumia 920 to pass through the federal halls sometime soon.

LG's extra-wide handset appears to be embarking on a world tour, and its packing a new processor for the trip. The Optimus Vu will be taking NVIDIA'S Tegra 3 chip to select markets in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America this September. It's still rocking that 5-inch 4:3 ratio IPS display, of course, but gone is any mention of LTE connectivity. There's no word yet if we'll see an LTE-equipped Tegra 3 handset hit Yankee shores when our time comes, but we certainly wouldn't bat an eye. Read on for LG's official press release.

As with Smule's other offerings, you can buy various songs with in-app purchase, and there are a few standards included for free. You can sing along solo, or open up your session for others to listen to and join. That's fun, but the social aspect of Sing! sets it apart.

You can browse other people's performances on a global map, listen to karaoke sessions from around the world and comment on your favorites. You can even add your own track to someone else's recording (with songs you haven't yet purchased). For example, you can sing backup on someone else's tune, or just the verses of a rap song, leaving the chorus open for someone else.

It's a fun time, and thanks to Smule's hard work on music sharing technology, it all works amazingly smoothly. Uploading and downloading songs and performances all happens in a snap. Smule has been at this for a few years now, and they've mastered this kind of sharing. Even if you're not interested in performing any karaoke, it's fun to hear what others are sharing.

Welcome to yetanotherepisode in the Droid RAZR HD's ongoing leak to market. The global variant of Motorola's flagship handset -- which is expected to supersede the Atrix HD and inevitably land on Verizon real-soon-now -- just made an appearance on xda-developers. What's new? It appears this phone is being tested on Vodafone and supposedly features an eight-megapixel camera (down from the rumored 13 MP). As a refresher, the Droid RAZR HD is slated to run Ice Cream Sandwich on a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and boast a 720p HD display (likely 4.5-inches across). There's still no official word from Motorola, but we'll keep you posted as we find out more. In the meantime, take a look at the gallery below.

Analyst Benedict Evans tries to explain why the iPhone accounts for about half of US smartphone sales, but is outold 2:1 by Android globally. He argues that it all comes down to plan pricing and phone subsidy.

In the US, consumers save US$100-$200 on the cost of the phone, but the plan pricing is the same. As a result, US consumers only save 10 percent by going with a less expensive Android device. Overseas, however, plan pricing is much more flexible. Customers can buy a cheap phone and a less expensive plan to match. As a result, the iPhone can be as much as 160 percent more expensive than its cheaper Android counterpart.

Hardcore jetsetters should still be turning to Xcom Global, iPhone Trip or a local mobile shop upon arrival, but those who won't be burning up the megabytes now have yet another alternative when traversing European lands. The outfit best known for keeping those traveling to the UK connected is now branching out a bit, enabling a single rental hotspot to provide mobile data access across 38 countries in the EU. You'll pay $5 per day for the privilege, but here's the kicker: only 1GB of data is included, regardless of how long you stay. If you chew through that allotment, you'll have to pay $55 for an extra 1.4GB or $95 for another 4GB. Granted, that's significantly less than what AT&T and Verizon would charge, even if you sign up for their discounted global plans. (For those curious, the same pools would run between $180 and $250.) It ain't ideal for those working on the go, but if you're just looking to tear through a Foursquare Bucket List while Eurotripping... well, you can place your order today in the source link below.

Verizon has just finished trotting out the last of its known 2012 Jetpack hotspots through the arrival of the ZTE-made model we saw back at CES in January. Now carrying a bit more Verizon red on the surface and a bit less Chinese in the name, the Jetpack 890L can share its 4G LTE sugar with as many as 10 WiFi devices at once. There's no removable battery like its Novatel-made Jetpack cousin, but you do get Global Ready (read: HSPA) roaming abroad. We're most liking the price. At $20 on a contract after a $50 mail-in rebate, the 890L will be the most frugal way to board the LTE hotspot train once it reaches stores on May 24th.

There's one major drawback that jet-setters and globetrotters utilizing one of Verizon's current LTE handsets must deal with: the lack of a GSM radio frequency. It's true, while CDMA and LTE have carved out a place for themselves here in the States, when the rubber literally meets the road (or tarmac), it's a GSM world we're living in. With that in mind, it appears as though Verizon is planning to make several of its current smartphones a bit more cosmopolitan by enabling the "global" capabilities already embedded within. Blog Droid-Life is reporting that new in-store collateral for the DROID 4, RAZR and Rezound contains the tagline, "Coming Soon: Use in an additional 185 countries." The new proficiency should be made available via a software update pushed out by Big Red, although some of you may have already taken matters into your own hands. No word on what the precise definition of "soon" is, but we've reached out to Verizon for comment and will update this post with any relevant information provided.

Update: Verizon officials reached out to us and confirmed that the rumors are indeed true: the HTC Rezound, Motorola Droid RAZR / RAZR Maxx and Droid 4 will all be updated "this summer." The carrier told us:

Customers will see a notification on their device when the software update is available for their device. After the software update, customers will be able to take their smartphone overseas and use voice service in more than 220 countries and receive data in more than 205 countries.

Not to be derailed by the "restricted" bootloader found on its US variant, One X users elsewhere can now potter around kernel version 2.6.39 and its unlocked bootloader. It's the latest release from HTC Dev, which now houses bootloaders for phones as far old as the venerable Dream, and means that the official channel has caught up with its eager modding community. Well, it's just a couple of months late. Those looking to load their boots can hit up the source below.

Ever used Gmail's automatic message translation feature, which lets you receive and send emails without even bothering to notice the native language of your contact? If not, that's probably because it's been lurking in the Labs section along with other ideas undergoing live experimentation. As of now though, translation should be right there in front of you as a regular feature, and honestly, it brings a whole new life to foreign spam. Meanwhile, other Lab features have been sacked, such as the Old Snakey time-frittering game and also Mail Goggles, which tested your sobriety with math puzzles before letting you click 'Send' in the wee hours of the morning. Ah well, the best labs are often the least crowded.

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automatic translationAutomaticTranslationbilingualdrunkemailglobalgmailgooglelanguagemail gogglesMailGogglesmultilingualsobertranslationWed, 02 May 2012 03:13:00 -040021|20228819http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/27/30-million-nfc-equipped-phones-shipped-in-2011/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/27/30-million-nfc-equipped-phones-shipped-in-2011/http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/27/30-million-nfc-equipped-phones-shipped-in-2011/?utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget#commentsThose working on life-changing uses for NFC in phones will now find it even harder to explain why life still hasn't changed. According to Berg Insight, annual global sales of NFC-equipped handsets increased ten-fold to reach 30 million units in 2011 and are forecast to grow to 700 million units by 2016. The analysts attribute this rise to general smartphone adoption rather than to demand for NFC as such, which makes sense from where we're sitting. Aside from a few proximity-based apps, Google Wallet and some other handbag-spurning payment schemes, there's still no overwhelming reason to gear up. GPS and WLAN, on the other hand, remain must-haves, and the PR below looks at their prevalence too.